


You're Going to be the Death of Me

by razuberri



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Marauders, Marauders' Era, angry kisses, jily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 04:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2454803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/razuberri/pseuds/razuberri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To say everyones noticed that James and Lily haven't been speaking would be putting it lightly. Alone together after a long day, whatever has put the two on edge comes to light. Will they end up further apart, or will they be able to clear whatevers come between them?</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Going to be the Death of Me

**Author's Note:**

> A huge shout-out to Bailey for giving me the prompt and being paitence enough for me to take seven years to write this. Also, don't judge to much, tbh this is my first fic and I will probably be spotting a new grammar error every time I go over it. Anyhow, please enjoy!

“Lily, you’re going to be late for rounds. Come on.” Marlene McKinnon was sitting next to the clearly exhausted Lily Evans. Chuckling as the other girl sighed deeply, she patted the redhead’s shoulder before standing up from the overstuffed couch. The two had been studying, the common room had been oddly quiet and couch had been free, so they had agreed to take the opportunity to sprawl across the comfy couch to catch up on class reading. Strechting out her back, Marlene made a noise and rolled her sore shoulders as she walked towards the dormitory stairs. “You can’t avoid him forever you know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” the redhead mumbled, pointedly not looking towards her friend. She held up her book, a few moments later the weight was lifted from her hand.

“Yes you do. Now go out the portrait hole before James comes down so you can think something witty to chastise him with for being late.” A soft laugh left Lily’s lips as her dark headed friend trotted up the stairs to their shared dormitory. Standing up and stretching out her own sore back, she dusted herself off before heading off. She had hoped no one had noticed her avoidance of James. Which she now realized was idiotic, after all her and James spent an outrageous amount of time together. Being head boy and girl and all, not for any other reasons. She definitely did not like spending her hours side by side with James Potter.

 -

Finding her way through the portrait hole, Lily gave the Fat Lady a small smile before starting the wait for James. To her surprise, her cohort had started off being very punctual, a couple of times he had even arrived here before her. Yet lately, he kept on arriving later and later for their rounds. Lily was positive she even heard him yelling one night that _“Padfoot I don’t want to go, send Moony instead I’m going to stay right here.”_ Sighing, she rocked back on her heels and stared up at the ceiling that was somewhere above her, wishing that this situation didn’t have to be so complicated. It was probably, no, most certainly because of what had happened the other night.

Keeping her mind away from what had exactly transpired, she tried to focus on what had happened since. Not much had happened really, which was the problem. There was this heavy silence that had found its way between them. Before it had been ridiculously easy to be around James, he had an easygoing presence that often soothed the nerves school would frazzle. And she was sure her level headed focus kept James from going insane, but now… It was as if the countless hours they spent together had disappeared, that a summer of writing letters meant nothing. They tripped into each other, any attempt at conversation faded in silence, and witty banter fell flat. Hell, she was sure that even the professors had noticed the change in their dynamic. If James just hadn’t-

The sound of the portrait hole swinging open cut into her thoughts. Chastising herself for getting so lost in her own head, she moved her hands to her hips, trying to procure her best glare while scrambling internally for a insult as James poked his head out from behind the portrait of the Fat Lady.

 

“You’re late.” Was what she ended up going with. James raised an eyebrow, the portrait hole closing softly behind him.

“All that time, and that’s the best you can come up with?” He asked, a cocky grin finding its usual place on his lips. Lily rolled her eyes, hair swinging out behind her as she started off without him. “Oi!”

“Just come along James, we haven’t got all night.” James sighed, and followed closely behind her. She would usually expect some sort of flashy comment from him, but tonight he was silent. The pesky silence was returning. She sighed, walking briskly, trying to find the right words to tell the silence to bugger off.

-

The longer they had worked together, the easier it had been to talk to each other. Rounds had ended up being enjoyable, both holding back laughter as they searched for lose students. The only sound that filled the Hogwart’s halls tonight though was the light, wrapping sound of footsteps. Otherwise, ear deafening silence.  It wasn’t a comfortable silence either, it was awkward and stiff. It made her skin crawl, and she kept tugging at the ends of her skirt, wishing for the night to be over.  Trying to think of some sort of conversation topic, she glanced over her shoulder, a comment on her lips, only to see her walking companion not there.

“Lily.” A voice called out to her behind, his tone uncharacteristically somber. Turning, she noticed that James had stopped a while back, several feet between them now as his stare bore into her.

“What.” She asked pointedly, fumbling her hands from the ends of her skirt to her hips.

“Don’t _what_ me. You know what I want to talk about. We need to talk about it.”

“Well… I don’t want to talk about it, so, let’s move on.” Lily spun on her heel, but James’ raised voice froze her in her tracks again.

“We need to talk about it, Lily. We’re not going to move on, you know that.”

Lily bit her lip, staring at the ground in front of her. He was right. Of course he was right, this would be the one time he was right about something. And of course he would be right about something as important as this. Like hell if she would ever admit he was right though. In her moment of hesitation, footsteps approached from behind. Another sigh.

“You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t noticed the space thats come between us.”

“Why- Why should I care?” Lily managed, turning her back again to James, eyes working desperately to keep themselves away from the boy behind her. He sighed as if her choice of words proved his point.

“Because we can’t keep going on like this.”

“Why not?” Her voice this time was more firm, more certain than before. Even if she was not.

“Why not-?” James’ voice cracked, and Lily took his moment of weakness to try and walk away, to escape the confrontation. A firm hand stopped her. “Lily, what happened- It-”

“It happened, and like I said, time to move on.”

“No… It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have…” Lily spun around, angry words trying to find their way to her lips. Their eyes locked onto each other, a beat of silence passing.

“. . . _A mistake_?” After a few moments, the icy words found their way to her lips. James instantly recognized his foul, and before he could jumbled an apology together, Lily was already marching on.

“That’s not what I meant. You know that.” He said softly, struggling to keep his tone even.

“Oh, do I know? What else do I know, James? Please enlighten me!” Lily roared, trying her hardest to keep her gaze ahead, to not look back.

“Lily!” She walked on, keeping her strides long enough to stay as far away from James as possible. He groaned in protest, trotting to keep up. “This is all my fault. I’m sorry, I'm so sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

“It’s always just me me me with you, isn’t?”

“Looks, Lily, I started it. I -”

“Do you ever even think of any one besides yourself James!?” Lily stopped now, spinning around to face him. “Honestly, it’s like the only thing you care about is if you glasses are properly crooked!” Something cracked in James’ expression, and he snapped right back.

“Right, because the great Lily Evans is never worried about her appearances! How long was it yesterday that it took you get ready? Is that why you’re keeping quiet about what happened, you want to keep up appearances?” James yelled back, glaring accusingly down at the girl.

“OH, and you’re one to talk? How many times a day do you run your fingers through your hair to get it perfectly ruffled? No one knows, we lost count after breakfast!” The redhead was standing on the tips of her toes, a finger pointing accusingly right back at him.

“Well, if I’m vain then so are you, Evans! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with a hair out of place, even during potions! What kind of spell do you use to keep it so beautiful? Maybe we should whisper secrets into each others ears like first years!” Somewhere down the hall a few portraits sighed, another shouted for them to keep quiet, it was too late for a quarrel this loud.

“We’re talking about secrets now then? Why don’t you go ahead and just spill all those secrets your little group keeps? Or maybe we could just tell the whole school about that damn kiss right now!” James’ face hardened, and he took a step closer, eyes blazing.

“I certainly don’t know what you’re talking about Evans.”

“Oh yes you do James, don’t deny it. You kissed Lily Evans and _you liked it_. And I know where you go once a month, known for a while. Guess I should just go ahead and let everyone else know our secrets, since we’re yelling about this!”  Lily took her own step forward, her eyes challenging.

“You wouldn’t dare.” James growled, standing right over her.

“I have a duty to this school! I am head girl and I take my job seriously, not like you James.”

“Right, and I’m head boy because I break the rules all the time. I thought you thought better of me now Lily! I thought we had moved on!” There was no space left between them now.

“What does it matter? You’re always getting angry at me, not to mention you are completely infuriating James. You can’t go a moment while cracking an idiot, gorgeous smile over you shoulder.” Their noses were practically touching.

“You’re the infuriating one! You just have to let your hair down in the middle of class, shaking your head back and forth like a Veela, I know you do that just to distract me! I see the way you look at me!”

“That distracts you? Then how can you even function in the same room as me? And do you think it’s easy to just sit in the same room as you when all I can think about is-” Whatever she had planned on saying was cut off by a pair of warm lips. Hands quickly found themselves tangled in long locks of red hair, untucked shirts becoming useful as hands reached up underneath them. The hall that had been echoing with shouts was now dead quiet, except for a soft thud as a head girl was shoved against a wall. Moments turned to minutes, and minutes kept on lengthening until the sound of panting filled the silence.

“I can’t.” James gasped out, straightening himself out.

“What?” Lily’s eyebrows furrowed, and she pulled a hand out from under his shirt to grasp his chin. “Look at me James.”

“I can’t function with you around Lily. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing, just…” James confessed, suddenly finding his shoes very appealing. “Sorry.”

“What on earth are you apologizing for? It’s not like I’m any better. You know-” she broke off to sigh.  “See, there you go doing it again.”

“Doing what, this?” A grin formed on his lips, a spark of devilishness lighting in his eyes as he glanced back up to her. “This gets to you now, Evans?” James ran his hand through his hair again, an impish grin spreading across his face. It was Lily who broke eye contact this time, her cheeks flaming.

“No! No, of course not, why would you think that, idiot.” Her voice started off firm, but trailed away as James moved his hand to the wall, efficiently pinning her to the wall.

“I think so. Seems I’ve gotten Lily Evans all in a tizzy now, don’t I?” His impish grin made it into his voice, and the blush on the redhead’s cheeks flared. Tilting his head to one side, he angled himself to look into Lily’s eyes, finally catching her eye. “I’m not wrong, am I.” A statement, not a question. 

“You shut your mouth James, and leave well enough alone.” Spitting the words after a moment and ducking under one of James’ arms, she knocked his head over as she started off without him again. “Come on, we’re done here it’s time to head back.” James sighed, and he hunched his shoulders to follow after the tiny ginger fury, but the idiot grin never left his face.

“I can make Lily blush, I can make Lily flush.” He sang under his breath, dancing a little. His joyful song was cut short by the head girl stopping in front of him again. She spun around, placing a single finger on his chest.

“Sure you can James, but-” she looked up at him throw her lashes, her voice lowering, “I can make you scream.”

With coy smile of her own, she turned back around and continued her back to the common room, almost skipping. James didn’t notice the hop her step though, he only gulped while straightening out his ruffled shirt, mumbling something along the lines of “Lily Evans you will be the death of me” before trotting to catch up.

-  


Returning to an empty common room, both stood silent at the base of the tower stairs. After a few more silent moments, they both spoke at once.

 “We are not going to tell anyone about what just happened.”

 “I think it’s best if we keep what just happened to ourselves.”

Both flushed, James running a hand through his hair while Lily pulled at the edge of her skirt.

“Right. Like we both said, let’s just not mention… Let’s just not mention this to anyone just yet, not a good idea for everyone to know that the head boy and girl are snogging in empty halls, our rounds would get split up. And everyone has much more important things to worry about.” Lily started, crossing her arms as if this decision was final.

“Maybe I could just let a few details drop to Sirius, I won’t mention any names-”

“James, I’ll personally castrate you if you give Sirius a single hint.”

“Is that a promise?” Lily’s swing at him pulled a short chuckle from his lips as she stormed up the stairs. Pausing halfway up, she turned, her expression softer as a small smile of her own grew on her face.

“I think… I think we’re better now. I’m right, aren’t I?” Whatever stiff tension that had been between them was gone. Whatever problem their first kiss had created had been eliminated by their second, much more involved kiss. Lily vaguely guessed it was because two people who loved each other found it very difficult to pretend to not love each other and keep their hands to themselves. Whatever that train of thought lead to though, she would leave for another day. Right now it was just her, James, and whatever they shared between them.

“As usual, you are.” James replied softly, smiling like he hadn’t smiled in a while. A gentle smile. She nodded, and continued her way up the stairs. Running his hand through his hair one more time, he watched her disappear, a grin still on the idiot's face.

“Yeah,” James said to himself, following suit. “She’s gonna be the end of me.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. I know nothing about how private schools and head boys and girls work in America or Britian or Hogwarts, so sorry if I totally miss the mark on that.


End file.
